My approach is to set up the main light, trigger it via the flash meter and take an incident light reading at the subject position. Then add the fill light and meter for the fill. The fill should be less than the main light - how much less will depend on how contrasty you want your lighting. Then meter the background light to determine how the background will look - if you're going for high key, then the background should measure 2-3 stops over the main light, otherwise you will just want to know how bright or dim it is to effect separation between the main subject and the background.

In the electronic flash era, you use a flash meter and meter individual units for the ratio desired. In the flashbulb era, you simply adjusted the distance of the flash units according to inverse square law to get the desired exposure at the proper distance.

It is really not that complicated.

IMHO, TTL is great for a single on camera unit or even a single off camera unit, but TTL for multiple camera flashes is sort of snake oil. If it works at all, it is so complicated that is more hassle than simply doing it manually. Why? Because no TTL system can possibly read your mind and know what ratio you want between the various units. It can get a correct exposure on the film or sensor, but whether it can do what you have in mind aesthetically is questionable.

I agree! I watch almost 2 hours worth of video about the Nikon CLS system which is a multiple flash TTL system. I found that they never get it right the first time. It's always test shot then dial in compensation which won't work for film camera and if you use digital then it's not better than manual flashes.

I've tried both and find with multiple T.T.L flash I shoot perfectly exposed portraits, but the light balance between the flashes is all wrong, I get much better results using my Sekonic L358 flash meter and metering each light with the dome in to calculate the contrast ratio between them, however outdoors for fill in flash a single T.T.L flash with a Garry Fong Lightsphere on it is magic.

Last edited by benjiboy; 04-02-2014 at 11:45 PM. Click to view previous post history.